How can we attract more men into the Early Years workforce?

13 September 2017

How can we attract more men into London’s Early Years workforce? is a new #MITEY report we are publishing to help early childhood education providers (such as children’s centres and nurseries) in the capital – and beyond – address the lack of men in their workforce.

The proportion of male staff in the ECE workforce remains at 2% in England. Almost 20 years ago (in 1998), the UK’s Teacher Training Agency and DfES set a target for the early years workforce to increase male recruitment to 6% by 2004. Little progress was made and the target was allowed to remain unmet. It is worth noting that by 2016, 26% of teachers in England were men; the proportion was greater among secondary teachers (38% of whom are men) than primary (15%).

Our report is based on a project we ran in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, funded by the Trust for London. In the report we present some key findings from the project, in an easy-to-digest form that will, we hope, stimulate discussion and be helpful to ECE providers considering and developing strategies to attract more men into the workforce.

We also present a schema for how ECE providers might create and embed pilot projects in their local areas, drawing on our experiences in Tower Hamlets, along with a summary of some commonly expressed opinions and beliefs about men in childcare (even among managers and practitioners at the forefront of efforts to boost male recruitment) – and responses to help unpick these unhelpful myths and stereotypes.

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